1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates to a sling for stabilizing weapons and other hand-held equipment during use and for transporting the same. More specifically, the disclosure relates to a sling that couples the weapon or equipment to the user's body to effect stabilization of the weapon or equipment using advanced biomechanics.
2. Description of the Related Art
Slings and straps and the like are commonly used for transporting and stabilizing weapons and other hand-held equipment such as rifles, shotguns, handguns, bows, crossbows, binoculars, telescopes, and still and motion picture cameras. As used herein, the term weapon is intended to include rifles, shotguns, handguns, bows, crossbows and other weapons as well as hand-held equipment such as binoculars, telescopes, cameras and the like.
One problem common to slings designed to facilitate the transportation of weapons is that there is little thought given to whether or how these slings may be used to stabilize the weapon during firing. One example is U.S. Pat. No. 3,098,591 to Lerude. Lerude's harness is adapted for carrying a rifle in a slung position but teaches nothing with regard to the stabilization of the weapon during firing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,067 to Gann discloses a carrying sling that permits a weapon to be transported in a variety of positions but discloses no manner in which the carrying sling may be used to stabilize the gun during firing.
Other slings attempt to navigate the middle ground between ease of transportation and stabilization of the weapon for firing. Examples of such patents include U.S. Pat. No. 4,331,271 to Anderson and U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,748 to Lindsey. Anderson discloses a sling for shoulder guns in which a shoulder gun is supported in a slung position from a belt to which is attached a strap. Pains are taken to insure that the shoulder gun will maintain its slung position during transport. However, for stabilization, Anderson relies on the well-known technique of wrapping the sling strap about the elbow of the arm with which the user of the weapon grasps the forearm of the stock. In this way, the user of the weapon is able to achieve a more secure connection between his or her arm and the weapon. However, this method of stabilizing a weapon for firing relies on the stability of the user's arms, an inherently unstable member of the human body. Accordingly, the Anderson sling is not capable of providing much in the way of stabilization for a weapon being fired.
The Lindsey sling is adapted for supporting a weapon across the front of the user's chest. A strap may be included between the muzzle end of the weapon and the shoulder of the user and by tensioning this strap between the shoulder and the muzzle end of the weapon the weapon may be stabilized to some degree. Not only is Lindsey's sling relatively limited insofar as it offers only two carrying positions for the weapon, but it provides no dissipation of the phenomenon of muzzle flip as the anchoring point for the stabilizing strap is positioned above the muzzle end of the weapon when the weapon is fired.
Other prior art designs have all but abandoned the goal of supporting a weapon for transport in favor of providing a maximum amount of stability for the weapon during firing. U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,256 to Goff et al. discloses an adaptable aiming support that essentially comprises a belt that has a rigid support with a fork at its upper end attached thereto. In use, the fork at the end of the rigid support is placed beneath the forearm or muzzle end of the weapon being fired when the weapon is in its firing position. The Goff et al. aiming support does offer better stability to the weapon during firing but is incapable of use as a traditional sling in that it is not able to support a weapon during transport at all.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,466 to Brown is a variation upon the adaptable aiming support of Goff et al. in that the tubular support member upon which a weapon is supported is permanently affixed to the weapon and is constructed and arranged to have a greater degree of rotation, thereby allowing the gun to be moved from a firing position to a carrying position in which the muzzle of the gun points upwardly. However, the weapon remains coupled to the tubular support member and may not be transported apart from the support without first uncoupling the weapon from the support. But in doing so, the weapon will have to be re-coupled to the support for use in the intended manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,448 to Gray et al. discloses a forearm sling that attempts to improve the stability of a weapon during firing by coupling the weapon to the forearm of the user. Again, while coupling a weapon to the arm of a user can increase the stability of the weapon during firing to some degree, the arm of a user is inherently unstable and cannot adequately stabilize a weapon during firing. What is more, the Gray et al. forearm sling has no way of counteracting the incidence of muzzle flip engendered by the firing of the weapon and does not provide a means for transporting the weapon.
Accordingly, there is a recognized need for a sling for use with weapons of various types and with other types of hand-held equipment that can facilitate the transport of the weapon in a variety of slung positions, in the crook of an arm, or in the hands, that does not involve the need to disassemble the sling. There is also a need for a sling that can couple a weapon to the user's body (e.g., proximate, the chest, the back, the hips or other truncal portion of a user's body) to sufficiently stabilize the weapon for firing. Such a sling should be usable in multiple shooting/use positions.
The foregoing patents are incorporated herein by reference for the relevant content and teachings contained therein. In addition, Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, Second Edition copyright 1983, is incorporated herein by reference in entirety for the definitions of words and terms used herein.